Today's data network and other telecommunications applications increasingly focus on providing a ubiquitous availability of their services in both indoor and outdoor environments. Examples of such data network and telecommunication applications providing ubiquitous availability include, but are not limited to, IEEE 802.11-related wireless local area network (WLAN), IEEE 802.16-related wireless wide area network (wireless WAN, also known as WiMAX), radio-frequency identification (RFID) applications, and cellular communication applications. As a result, many data network and telecommunication equipment which were typically installed indoors are now increasingly required to be installed in outdoor environments.
Installing network and telecommunication equipment outdoors bring significant reliability and safety challenges to a network and/or telecommunication equipment manufacturer. Because an outdoor electrical equipment (i.e. including a network and/or telecommunication equipment) installed in an outdoor environment is typically not placed in a temperature-controlled and/or a waterproof building, the outdoor electrical equipment is expected to withstand wind, external debris (e.g. dusts, insects, and etc), and dramatically varying seasonal temperatures and humidity for its expected operating life.
A conventional way of designing an outdoor electrical equipment involves a weatherproof enclosure containing all or most electronic, networking, and/or telecommunication components inside. The weatherproof enclosure is typically designed with specialized watertight or splash-proof electrical connectors for data and/or power cable connections. The specialized watertight or splash-proof electrical connectors are designed to keep external elements and water out of the electronic, networking, and/or telecommunication components.
A significant drawback to the conventional weatherproof enclosure design is a high cost of manufacturing and assembly of the specialized watertight or splash-proof electrical connectors. For example, conventional electrical input and output connectors on an exterior surface of a weatherproof enclosure are specialized watertight or splash-proof electrical connectors with rubberized watertight jacks. These specialized watertight or splash-proof electrical connectors add significant part and assembly costs to an outdoor electrical equipment. Furthermore, the specialized watertight or splash-proof electrical connectors bring design constraints and complexity to an outdoor electrical equipment because they take up a larger space than indoor jacks and typically require a careful alignment planning and even a specialized printed circuit board (PCB's).
Therefore, it is advantageous to devise a novel method and an apparatus that can reduce design constraints and manufacturing costs of a weatherproof enclosure containing electrical equipment.